


Masterkey override or the one time when everyone realised that Lance was smart

by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awesome Pidge, Fluff, Gen, Insecure Lance (Voltron), People appreciatng Lance, Realisations, Smart Lance, Surprised Team, Types of intelligence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 04:35:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15856329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Of_Dresden/pseuds/ClaraCivry
Summary: Basically, Lance asks Pidge to teach him some technical stuff, and it turns out that he is more intelligent than any of them thought (including Lance himself).A smart Lance fic, for all your smart Lance needs, featuring awesome teacher Pidge and startstruck team.





	Masterkey override or the one time when everyone realised that Lance was smart

“If we don't find a way to neutralise that fleet of bots we'll be lost. We need to find a way to make them useless.” Pidge said, worried. They needed a good idea, and now.

Hunk was thinking hard, but couldn't come up with anything. Some other voice came from a seat near him, distracting him.

“If we hacked in we could jam the command system implanting a masterkey override. We put a freeze order on the override, and the bots can not attack, cannot move- they become useless and unusable to any orders.”

“Yeah, that's genius! Pidge, start with it, and we can finish with the robot army before it starts.” Hunk said. Why hadn't he thought of that? A masterkey override! “Thanks.... Lance?”

It was Lance who had had that genius idea, it was Lance using all those technical words. Lance. Their least technical person, resident non-thinker. Lance.

A silence spread through the ship, everyone looking at Lance as if he'd sprung another head, they were looking at him with the most intensity. Coran's jaw was on the floor. Shiro frowned. Pidge grinned and had to stop herself from applauding.

Matt was puzzled.

“Lance... I... they told me you were... ahhh... the less proficient in technology and science. How...?”

Lance smiled.

“Maybe I decided to become more... proficient. Found myself a great teacher.”

It was a couple of months ago when Lance had knocked of Pidge's door, with an uncertain face and a small voice, something very uncharacteristic for him. After some small talk and some awkwardness, Pidge managed to get her friend to open about why he was there, why he had come.

“Pidge, could you... teach me how to be smart? I mean, heh, I know you can't make smarter, we are what we are, there's not much you can do about it... But could you tell me about the machines and Altean and how the castle works? I've never been the greatest student, but for you I'll try! I'm... I'm tired of not understanding things, and you're so smart....'”

And Lance was so hopeful, there was such a brightness to his eyes, such expectation... How could she say no?

And yeah, Lance wasn't a great student, he distracted easily, made a lot of jokes that prevented him from focusing, had trouble understanding the basics... Until that one day when Pidge made a picture, like an outline – a visual explanation of the same thing that she'd explained three times already, and Lance understood. He understood so much that he explained it back to her, drew some very logical conclusions. It was so clear when you could see it like that!

This was the first step: because Lance started understanding, he wanted to go on, got distracted less. He wanted to show that he could know things about machines too. Pidge shifted her way of explaining: less words, more pictures, schematics – the more visual the explanation, the more you could actually what you were explaining, the better Lance understood, the more he got into it.

It made sense, really, this was why Lance was so good with Voltron, in battle: he could see the fleets, he could see space, he could see the weapons they were using. They had read him all wrong, they thought he was all instincts, they thought he didn't think, when actually he was simply a more visual learner.

This opened up a new way of teaching, a new way of learning, and even a new way of thinking for Pidge. She'd never seen her subjects the way Lance did, and it was... enlightening. She taught him about computers, the basics of hacking and the basics of the system of both the Galra and the castle...

“You were a good student, too, despite your rocky beginnings. But I didn't teach you about overrides, or implanting orders in them.”

Lance almost blushed.

“It was in one of those instruction videos of Coran's about techniques of... well, I don't remember – I found a stash of those videos and watched them all, and then found a book with lots of pictures about some of things he mentioned. They are great videos by the way, Coran. Super helpful.”

Coran, who had been nearly rendered speechless, broke into a grin.

“Glad to be of service, lad.”

Hunk was overjoyed.

“Does this mean that now I can talk about machines with you?” You could nearly see the stars in Hunk's eyes as he said it. To have his best friend understand when he was passionately talking about technical stuff, man, that sounded like a dream.

“Don't get too excited, buddy, I just learned a couple of things, I'm no super-smart guy like you or Pidge.”

“How do you know that?” Pidge said, and Lance looked at her, confused. “How do you know you're not as smart as me if you've never given it a chance? You probably were too distracted as a kid playing with your family, and chasing after girls when you were a teen. But maybe, if you put your head into it....”

“Nah, Pidge, I appreciate the sentiment, but I had tests in the garrison, I'm not that _smart_. Thanks for cheering me up, though. Means a lot.”

“But those tests were for more logical thinkers, like me or Matt! And you didn't know how to make studying easier for you, because you hadn't tried it! Tell me, honestly, how much did you study for those Garrison entrance tests?”

“Hey! I studied a lot! Which was tough because I didn't like studying and the weather was perfect to go swimming,” Lance said, almost pouting. Studying had never been one of his strong suits, but the Garrison had been his dream.

“What's a lot for you?”

“I don't know... but like a lot of hours. Maybe twenty.”

Pidge let out an incredulous little laugh.

“And you passed! Most people study for hundreds of hours and a lot fail, and you passed while thinking about going swimming!”

“I'm smart?”

“You have only been studying with me for what like what, two months? And you came up with the idea for the masterkey override. That's smart.”

“It is?”

“And you know why you thought of that? Because you made an effort, got an interest and suddenly you thought of something that not me, or Matt, or Hunk could think of. Imagine if you got interested in other things, if you found videos and books with pictures for other subjects, the ideas and the connections that you could make. You have so much potential, it's.. it's so cool.”

Lance smiled.

“It's...nice to hear that. I was always the funny or charming one, there were always other people in my family or in my group of friends who were much more smarter than me. I... kind of thought that I was dumb, that I shouldn't try to study because I wouldn't understand anything anyway...”

“You haven't let yourself see how smart you can actually be, that's the problem! Maybe you'll be never a bookish prodigy like me, but you have a lot of practical and emotional intelligence, and a lot of potential. This is just... this is just awesome. I mean, masterkey override! I wouldn't have thought of that in a million years! It's so simple! But clean! Our heads are cluttered with words but yours just sees the solution!”

Lance was positively blushing, unused to all this praise, praise to his intelligence, no less. It was … flattering, and comforting, that someone as smart as Pidge thought he could be smart. It was comforting that he wasn't stuck as the dumb one, that he had the capacity to be, at least, as smart as his team mates.

He looked on their faces, and saw admiration, respect.

Yep, he was definitely going to ask Pidge and Coran for more classes. Dumb Lance, if there ever was such a thing, was something of the past.

 


End file.
